Yalta and Potsdam- 

The Start of The Cold War

The Leaders of the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill)

In February 1945 the German's were almost defeated. it was clear that the war in Europe was over. The Allied leaders met in the Crimea at a place called Yalta. They were to split up German territory. Germany was to be split into zones between the USA, Britain, France and Russia. Russia got most of Eastern Europe. 

By the time of the second conference in July 1945 at Potsdam, on the outskirts of Berlin things had changes. Churchill had been replaced by Attlee and Roosevelt had dies leaving Harry Truman in his place. Truman was a strong anti-communist and believed the Yalta conference had given the Soviet Union too much. No agreements had been made and the conference broke up in bad feeling and the agreement of Yalta had to be kept. Truman was not happy. This was the start of the Cold War

The Cold War. 

This refers to the hostility and bad relations between the Americans and the Soviet Union. The World would be split into two huge camps. 1) For the USA and free competition (capitalism), 2), For the Soviet Union, (communism). The arms race was to spread and the fear of a nuclear war as both sides created bigger and more sophisticated ways of killing their opponents. It was to last for over 40 years and was responsible for the First Man on the Moon, thousands of universities, medical advances etc. So, whilst the Cold War was a terrible time in history you should be aware that many positive developments came out of it. This is not to say that the most effective way to save lives is to build tanks!